Artist in conversation: Jessica Molesini
“Comparison is the thief of joy, they say, and it's true. 'Your path is unique' celebrates the diversity of our lives and what roads these paths leads to and experiences we live along the way that shape who we are.”
Jessica Molesini, originally from Italy, is an illustrator based in Dublin, Ireland. Her art journey began in Seattle, USA, and led her to Seville, Spain, where she worked at an art academy. With a background in graphic design and foreign languages, she chose to start her own business to focus on her illustration work. Jessica creates cute, colorful characters for clients or for individuals seeking customized artwork tailored to their vision.
Adding her unique cartoon-style touch, she primarily draws digitally and prints when needed based on the project. She has also completed murals and shopfront displays and aims to do more of these in 2024. Passionate about nature, Jessica draws inspiration from conversations, people, and random details on city streets. More about her projects, behind-the-scenes glimpses of her sketchbooks, and tips she learns along the way can be found on her social media.
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What initially inspired you to become an artist, and how did you develop your unique style?
I have been drawing since I was a kid. Literally would sketch on paper, clothes, school desks and walls. I just needed a pen or a pencil! I started to be more interested in drawing by reading comics and watching anime. I used my favorite characters as reference, practicing on my time off after school almost every day. I eventually came up with my own style with trial and error during the years. Overtime, I noticed I leaned particularly towards cartoons and characters, because they looked bold, fun and adding speech bubbles allowed me to tell a story or spread a message. 2
In terms of subject matter, what themes or motifs do you frequently explore in your work, and what draws you to these topics?
I focus mainly on character design, nature and comics. They are my three main pillars and I build around them, whether it is my personal project or a brief I am given at hand. I draw inspiration from lived experience, human connections, music, books, places. The end goal is to create an illustration that has a positive impact through storytelling. Behind what I draw there are (more often than not) bits from my life, even if it does not look like to an external eye. I could be walking on the street in Italy and see a quote written on a wall and, in my head, I picture it as a comic strip or an image. Tricky to explain, but my head thinks in pictures and sounds. I guess I am drawn to these themes because of my introspective nature. At the same time, I am full of energy, so I like to add that aspect of my personality as through colors and fun, cute cartoons.
How do you approach the creative process? Do you have a specific routine or set of rituals that help you get into the right mindset for creating?
The creative process for me starts from a place of chaos, and I need to push myself to be disciplined to get the ball rolling in the right way. In my head, I have a fast racing speed of ideas and images, so I admit it can be challenging to keep up and this can affect the start of a project. I have to be intentional. I found my solution: having a sketchbook with me at all times to sketch rough drafts. Brainstorming and writing things down is helpful because I can see it and track it. I have notes in my phone as well as a back-up plan. That allows me to have reference starting points. I always begin on paper and I play music to really tune into a specific emotion or feeling I want to express. By doing so, I can quiet down other thoughts, and I am able to focus. One more ritual is to go outdoors: it's that simple. A walk in the park, fresh air. There's a whole world full of sounds, textures, shades and lights to be inspired by! I take myself on solo adventures and I love it.
Can you describe your artistic style and the techniques or mediums you most enjoy working with?
My style is cartoony and colorful. For the most part, I illustrate digitally or with pencil and ink pens. These choices stem from simple curiosity to learn digital art, but also finding it incredibly versatile, since I am able to carry my equipment easily with me everywhere and storage can be online or on a portable hard drive. I still draw by hand because I prefer not to be on a screen constantly, but also for the same reason being I can carry a book and pens everywhere I go with little weight. I do loads of travel sketches, I take ideally 5 quick minutes on site to draw a building or people. Whatever, really. By allowing a short time frame, I don't get a fully perfect image, but I learned to be faster at capturing details of what I see and not think too much about the blank canvas. It stops from overthinking. Spray paint is also a new medium I started to use last year in 2023 working on a mural and I very much enjoy it, so I want to get to practice more in the future.
Can you share a specific piece of artwork that holds special significance to you?
I painted a street art piece in 2023 which I titled "Your path is unique" for a Dublin based street art project called Dublin Canvas. The artwork shows letters turn into roads, leading to different destinations. I think this is a message I needed to hear a lot when I was younger and that I still remind to myself every day. Street art is a great medium to talk to the public; people interact with art and can also relate to it. This piece holds significance because I did the first sketch in a time when I was very much comparing myself and my life to others; one of those times in life where you have to start again from zero. I was a bit disappointed and thinking "I was behind". Behind what, I don't know, but we all experience this from time to time. Comparison is the thief of joy, they say, and it's true. "Your path is unique" celebrates the diversity of our lives and what rooads these paths leads to and experiences we live along the way that shape who we are.
How do you incorporate feedback from critics and audiences into your artistic practice, and how do you balance this feedback with your own artistic intuition?
I always look for feedback, and I like to hear it whether it is positive, negative or in between. Of course good words are nicer to hear and give you a boost, but when you put your work out there it is inevitable to face critic, rejection or sometimes things don't turn out as you wish. I take positive feedback to guide me into what I notice to be working. I start from there, knock on more doors and explore new avenues based on that. When something does not go as I planned instead, I take that as a redirection, not a rejection. Trusting my intuition, I thought being an illustrator was the right choice after working for a while as a graphic designer. I just felt something was missing. I really wanted to give my illustration career a go and molded my life once again to align to this. Graphic design turned out useful anyway, since its fundamentals are transferable to other creative disciplines.
How do you stay motivated and inspired despite any setbacks or creative blocks you may encounter?
I experience more burnouts episodes rather than creative blocks. I have to be careful on how I use my time, energy and make sure there are moments to rest and recharge. I used to be influenced by the "hustle culture" way of thinking, believing that taking time to rest was a waste. It's easy to get caught in this loop, especially if building your business from scratch. There is a lot to take care of from creating work, keep finding work, and the admin part of it. I actually learned to re-direct my life the right way with a business coach. She helped me find my core values and I can make decisions that are more aligned to who I am, which also gives me the confidence to know I can face a setback and overcome a block. Difficulties happen but, overall, I recognize they are part of life, so I see them as a learning curve and a reason to improve instead. I go swimming as well; that is not art related, but sport improves the quality of my life so much from a physical and mental point of view, its benefits positively affect my life and I function incredibly better because of it.
How do you feel about exhibiting your artworks with The Holy Art Gallery?
It was a lovely experience! I got an excuse to take a few trips to London and Athens as well, which was great. The digital exhibition was different from any other exhibitions I've seen before, and it's a great alternative, allowing artist who work with digital media to showcase what they create.
Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals and aspirations as an artist, and how do you plan to achieve them? Generally speaking, I know I will be drawing and telling stories, whether it will be doing murals on big walls, illustrating books or maybe turning something suitable for TV. The sky is the limit, in my opinion, and you don't know what happens until you try. All the above are completely different avenues of work, but I always like to have a few options to test and see what works better. I don't want to disclose too much either, I tend to share more when I have started a project and have tangible things to show or discuss. I hope to get to travel more as well and have connections in multiple places. Coming to London for the exhibition actually has snowballed in a couple more trips to the city, I really liked it and I met other illustrators. These are all goals that are achievable overtime, for me the best way to do it is to sit down and make a breakdown of small steps that I need to take to get the ball rolling, network and enjoy the process.
What role does emotion play in your creative process, and how do you aim to evoke specific feelings or reactions from those who view your drawings?
I would say the majority of my drawings, no matter if they are sketches or digital art or murals, they all start from an emotion I feel. To be honest, that is my own form of therapy! As mentioned before, music is a complementary tool I need to include. I do like to write, but I struggle to get the feelings and ideas across like that. However, lyrics from songs are the words I cannot find, chords and tunes are the soundtrack to the illustrations I create. Once I get that sorted, I go out on solo adventures with one ear listening to music, the other one hears the sounds of the world. This way I feel I am in a movie scene and use the pictures I take as reference when needed, sometimes I edit them on Lightroom to get the filters right and add the cinematic look. Taking notes of thoughts and associating colors to a specific emotion on the go also helps to draft quick doodles of the image that pops in my head.
